David Carrick, 47, was a Met Police firearms officer who worked on the Parliamentary estate
PC David Carrick, an armed officer in the parliamentary and diplomatic protection command, admitted on Monday to 49 counts - some detailing multiple offences, against 12 women.
Police and prosecutors say he exploited his position as a Met officer to lure women, then terrorise them into staying silent about his sexual attacks and degradation of them.
The scale of offending by Carrick, 48, spanning 17 years, makes him one of the worst sexual offenders in modern criminal history.
He pleaded guilty to the final offences against him on Monday at Southwark crown court, allowing reporting restrictions to be lifted.
It can now be revealed the Met has admitted errors in failing to spot Carrick's escalating danger during his 20 years' service.
The force was told about nine incidents from 2000 to 2021, including eight alleged attacks or clashes Carrick had with women before the arrest that led to his convictions.
No action was taken, with the women either refusing to formally complain or withdrawing their cooperation from the police investigation.
Alarm bells also failed to ring within the force, which promoted Carrick in 2009 from patrolling the streets to being a member of an elite armed unit, the parliamentary and diplomatic protection command, guarding embassies, Downing Street and the Houses of Parliament.
Comment: Notably, a number of parliamentarians, whom he may have been tasked with protecting, have been outed as criminals and perverts in recent years: Senior Tory 'spiked 4 people with rape drug, including 2 other MPs', follows arrest of another MP for sex offences
One incident took place before Carrick joined the Met in 2001. The Guardian understands another, in 2002, included an allegation that he had bitten a woman's shoulder after their relationship ended, and came during his probation period, when it would have been easier to dismiss him.
A court earlier heard that before one alleged attack on a woman in September 2020, Carrick, from Stevenage in Hertfordshire, flashed his police warrant card to make the woman feel safe, bragged about guarding the prime minister, and said his work nickname was "bastard Dave".
Other victims he admits attacking were warned that if they spoke out about him raping and sexually assaulting them they would not be believed because he was a police officer.
Police and prosecutors say Carrick sought to dominate and humiliate his victims, turning a tiny understair cupboard into a dark space where some were forced to stay naked and cramped for hours.
He verbally abused the women, calling one his "slave", and used sexual violence to degrade them, including urinating on some of the women.
The Met said it should have spotted the threat Carrick posed to women during his time in the force from 2001, when he first passed the force's vetting procedure. In 2009, he was given a gun, and despite the complaints against him he passed vetting again in 2017.
Barbara Gray, an assistant commissioner at the Met, said the force was reviewing every past claim of domestic abuse or sexual offence against about 1,000 of the Met's 45,000 officers and staff.
Comment: Apparently their vetting policy is so lax - or compromised - that they realise the urgent need to review every single member of staff. However, considering the glaring evidence against this criminal, it's likely that this is an institutional problem and so without an impartial investigation, routing out the others will be difficult, and without an overhaul, it's likely to happen again.
The Met said Carrick should never have been allowed to join the force and that his offending was "unprecedented" in its duration and nature, and follows a string of other scandals.
David Carrick: 'One of the most shocking cases involving a serving officer', say prosecutors - video
DCI Iain Moor, who led the investigation into Carrick by Hertfordshire police, said: "He invested time in developing relationships with women to sustain his appetite for degradation and control. The coercive nature of his offending undermined his victims in the most destructive way.
"Many of the rape offences came with violence against the victim, who would have been physically injured."
After more than a year of pre-trial hearings covered by tight reporting restrictions, Carrick pleaded guilty to the final six charges on Monday, having pleaded guilty in December to 43 charges.
In all Carrick admitted 49 charges, some of which detailed multiple instances of offending.
In total the Met officer entrusted with a gun and guarding some of the country's most sensitive sites pleaded guilty to 24 counts of rape, nine counts of sexual assault, five counts of assault by penetration, three counts of coercive and controlling behaviour, three counts of false imprisonment, two counts of attempted rape, one count of attempted sexual assault by penetration, one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, and one count of indecent assault.
Comment: And those are just the crimes he admitted to.
He pleaded not guilty to the rape of the woman whose complaint led to his arrest in October 2021, and to a charge of illegally having an imitation firearm.
All that rapping means you're going to set him free, right !..